Cigarettes are normally sold as complete tailor made cigarettes which can be smoked without further assembly or processing by the consumer. There are, however, several advantages including financial for smokers to assemble their own cigarettes.
There are a variety of available forms of inherently-unsmokeable cigarettes which can be assembled in different manners such as for example described in Canadian Patent No. 2,011,254. However, up until now, such cigarettes have not been available in a convenient, compact and easy to use kit that is pocket sized and provides for the rapid and simple assembly of smokeable cigarettes.
Several different types of cigarette packaging have been developed over the years. For example, Canadian Patent 487,165 discloses a packaging means for cigarettes in which several individual packages of cigarettes are held together with an encircling band and retained together with an adhesive strip made of cellulose tape. Canadian Patent 604,546 is directed to an interconnected container unit for retaining cigarettes which is essentially a foldable unit. The unit is made of a flat single sheet of material having opposed ends which is folded into several sections and held together with an adhesive.
Canadian Patent 711,109 is directed to a multi-compartment cigarette package where each compartment contains six cigarettes. The package itself is approximately the size of a conventional package of cigarettes. Each compartment has an inner foil wrapping and a sealed cellophane wrapper enclosing each separable compartment with pull tape securing each individual compartments together.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,984,340 discloses a cigarette package for holding short cigarettes. The package comprises two individual packages each having a flip top lid which are held together by a revenue stamp and outer cellophane wrapping.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,007,623 discloses a dual cigarette pack for packaging two different kinds of cigarettes in a single container. One compartment may contain filter tipped cigarettes and the other plain cigarettes. The dual pack has an outer sealing wrapper (cellophane) which is removable in such a manner that one portion of the pack is kept closed while the other is in use. This is a single package with two separate compartments.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,051,305 discloses a cigarette display carton comprising a cardboard to form a bottom panel into which several cigarette packages are stood upright thereon. Side panels are also provided. A transparent film is wrapped tightly around the plurality of packages.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,010 discloses a cigarette packaging system for dual compartment cigarette packages in which both compartments are made of a common paper wrapper and the entire system enclosed in cellophane.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,227 discloses a cigarette packaging system in which individual packages are wrapped in an aligned single row or double row. A frangible strip is provided to open the wrapper or alternatively the frangible strip may be used to connect packages together.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,611 discloses a package group comprising two individual packages having a pricing bar code on one side and are fastened together in a stacked relationship by a wrap around adhesive band of a transparent material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,817 discloses packaging for a plurality of small cigarette packs in which several cigarette packs are combined to form small groups. Each group of cigarette packs is held together by means of a wrapping consisting of paper, cardboard or film material open on at least one side such that at least the bottom walls of the cigarette packs are exposed or accessible. The cigarette packs are connected to one another and to the wrapping by an adhesively bonded film strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,872 discloses a rigid, hinged-lid packet for cigarettes which has an intermediate portion closed at opposite ends by two hinged lids and housing two opposite orderly groups of cigarettes. Each group of cigarettes are accessible by opening a respective lid. The intermediate portion also houses at least one substantially rigid reinforcing structure having a number of sleeves engaged by respective cigarettes.
It is evident that there are several different types of cigarette packaging systems for complete tailor made ready to smoke cigarettes. However, there are no cigarette packaging systems specifically for "make-your-own" cigarettes that can be conveniently assembled from a sufficiently compact kit to be portable in a pocket or purse and provide the necessary elements in a compact kit.
There is therefore a need to develop a simple and cost efficient cigarette kit packaging system designed specifically for "make-your-own" cigarettes.